A significant shift: Women, Food Security and Agriculture in a Global Marketplace
By Jet Hermida on Jun 30, 2009 in Agricultural Researches, Agriculture and Globalization, Food Security, Organizational Development, Rural Women, Sustainable Agriculture
Another good read from ICRW!
From the introduction:
Rural women produce half of the world’s food and, in developing countries, between 60 percent and 80 percent of food crops. Women also are more likely than men to spend their income on the well-being of their families, including more nutritious foods, school fees for children and health care.
Yet agricultural investments do not reflect these facts. Women in forestry, fishing and agriculture received just 7 percent of total aid for all sectors.
A key failing of past efforts to reduce hunger and increase rural incomes has been the lack of attention paid to women as farmers, producers and farm workers – both wage and non-wage. It’s not too late to integrate the lessons we’ve learned and avoid the pitfalls of the past. To move forward, however, the world community must make a significant shift in its thinking about women, food security, agriculture and the global marketplace to see women as key economic agents of change in rural communities who in their own right contribute to local, national and global food security and economic growth.
This paper reviews current thinking and practice on increasing agricultural productivity, both subsistence and commercial agriculture, and examines what is known about women’s roles in both sectors.
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